The US watered down crypto when it ousted Binance’s Zhao — and that’s okay

Part of the deal was that Zhao and Binance agreed to never even hint that they weren’t responsible for their crimes — a shame, as that would’ve played incredibly well on X, a platform that CZ cares so much about he even invested in it with Elon Musk.

A much tamer successor in traditional finance veteran, Richard Teng, has taken over as Binance CEO. Teng has never threatened to sue journalists on a social media platform.

That’s not to say that Teng isn’t qualified to run a crypto exchange. Even before Binance Singapore, Teng spent 13 years at the nation’s central bank and another six as head honcho at Abu Dhabi’s financial center.

Binance has more hoops ahead of it than a Border Collie at Crufts, and Teng is exactly the kind of agility instructor required to navigate that mess. But Zhao had represented a very particular breed of crypto entrepreneur, one that drives critics up the wall.

Big Tech has characters like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk: They relentlessly believe that what they and their companies do makes the world a better place. The spin makes them easy targets, as their salesmanship resembles out-of-touch naivete.

Meta isn’t exploiting our brain chemistry to undermine social discourse — it’s a bastion of free speech that brings us all together.

Amazon fulfillment centers aren’t soulless symptoms of late-stage capitalism — they’re fun places full of people “helping invent the future.”

And Elon Musk’s Neuralink isn’t a grisly horror show ripped from the Twilight Zone — it’s a paradise for terminally-ill monkeys complete with playground equipment and TVs.

Zhao was just as painfully stubborn about Binance. The platform isn’t an opportunistic hotbed of low quality cryptocurrencies with illiquid markets prone to manipulation — it’s a charitable smorgasbord of blockchain innovation totally free of shitcoins (and securities).

We don’t list shitcoins even if they pay 400 or 4,000 BTC. ETH/NEO/XRP/EOS/XMR/LTC/more listed with no fee. Question is not “how much does Binance charge to list?” but “is my coin good enough?” It’s not the fee, it’s your project! Focus on your own project!

— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) August 11, 2018

Toeing the company line seemed easy for Zhao. Like most entrepreneur influencers, much of his online persona revolves around the toxic positivity typical of founders and venture capitalists, alongside dog whistles for crypto diehards: Dips are when diamond hands are tested, and when in doubt, zoom out on the chart. And then there’s the whole “4” thing.

Where spiritual gurus would light some sage or chant a mantra to cleanse their chakras of negative energy, Zhao zealots would shoo away bad vibes with a very special brand of shitposting. Just the number “4,” representing the fourth of Zhao’s 2023 resolutions: “Ignore FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt), fake news, attacks, etc.”

(Education, compliance and product and service were the first three).

Six years at Binance vs. first week as Binance CEO

Teng’s incredibly formal demeanor as compared to Zhao is so noticeable that he was asked about it on a recent Twitter Spaces, his first as CEO.

“Yes and no. I do think that certain things do require certain seriousness in terms of level of communication, because you’re talking about serious matters, especially on matters relating to protection of users, for example, security of users when you talk to the regulators,” Teng said.

He continued: “So I adopt a slightly different mode of communication for different channels. And they’ll be very informal channels of communication as well. So I think, keep [those posts coming].”

So, Teng will very likely be far less interesting to follow, or cheer for, or even hate-follow from afar. It hasn’t been long, and it’s doubtful he’ll attract a cult following like Zhao. But that’s okay.

Maybe crypto needs less cartoonish ringmasters and more sensible suits who show real discomfort for servicing the worst of the worst for the sake of profits.

David is an Editor based in The Netherlands focused on data-driven journalism. Previously, he wrote for TheNextWeb’s crypto vertical before launching Protos in 2021. He’s a reformed hardline Bitcoiner passionate about permissionless and decentralized networks. Contact David at david@blockworks.co

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